Deborah M. Schneider CEC

Deborah Schneider, CEC

Executive Chef / Partner of SOL Cocina Restaurant Group, and an accomplished author.

Her second book, Cooking with the Seasons at Rancho La Puerta:Recipes from the World Famous Spa  (September 2008) celebrates the organic gardens and cooking school of Rancho La Puerta, one of the world’s most famous fitness resorts, where she is a frequent guest teacher.

Her first cookbook, ¡Baja! Cooking On the Edge, features the foods and wines of Baja California and was chosen by Food & Wine Magazine as one of the best books of  2006.

A third cookbook Amor y Tacos (due Spring 2010) will put an exciting spin on modern Mexican food and cocktails.

Through her restaurant work and writings, Deborah has been influential in the local farm to table movement and in supporting sustainable fisheries in California and Baja. She has mentored many young chefs and supported many community groups and culinary fund-raising efforts.

She received her CEC ranking (Certified Executive Chef) in 2001 from the American Culinary Federation, recognizing over 20 years of professional cooking and other accomplishments. From 2005- 2008 Deborah was Executive Chef of the exclusive Turf Club at Del Mar Fairgrounds and Race Track.  Prior to that Deborah opened the popular Jsix/Jbar and Hotel Solamar, located in San Diego’s chic Gaslamp District. For six years she was Executive Chef of the four-star Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines, the first (and so far only) woman to hold an executive chef position with the hotelier. Other stops in her 28-year career include the venerable Grant Grill (where she was first female chef, ) Dobson’s Restaurant and La Gran Tapa, all in San Diego.

In the early 1980’s she spent 8 months on a BMW motorcycle exploring France, Spain, the Canary Islands, North Africa, Italy and Greece. While living in Athens, Deborah spent a year working as chef on a succession of luxurious charter yachts. She later worked as a yacht chef in Florida and the Caribbean before switching coasts and settling in San Diego in 1983.

Before cooking took over her imagination, Schneider was Executive Editor of a specialty publishing house in Toronto where she designed magazines, wrote and edited copy, and oversaw production of souvenir books for clients as diverse as the Toronto Blue Jays, Canadian Opera Company, Stratford Shakespearean Festival and Winnipeg Jets hockey team.

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